Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We don’t have long,” he muttered.
I touched his forehead. It was still hot, but not concerningly so. He couldn’t be delirious. “Why don’t we have long?”
He squeezed my hand desperately. “Because Chris will come back with the results soon.”
Ah, something to do with his business. “We’ll worry about that when it happens, okay. Just rest now,” I consoled.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he mumbled.
“You won’t. I’m right here.” I curled myself around his feverish body, and eventually, we both fell asleep.
Chapter 51
Lillian
“That was a rough night,” he said as we ate a breakfast of oatmeal at the dining table. It was more like brunch, as Max had slept in. But it had done him a world of good. The way he had grasped my hand earlier in bed and muttered nonsense worried me a little.
“You look a lot better now,” I said, thinking it was my cue to leave.
“I might look better, but I still feel sickly,” he said with an innocent expression.
“Ah yes, the man flu is a long-lasting thing,” I mocked.
“Come and touch my forehead if you don’t believe me.”
“I believe you,” I said with a laugh. I was playing along even though I knew I should leave.
The doorbell rang and I jumped.
“Probably some deliveries,” Max guessed.
The housekeeper answered the door, but it wasn’t a delivery. It was Mrs. Frost. Like a little hurricane, she came bustling into the sunny breakfast room where we were.
“Oh, Maximus, I was so worried about you,” she cried. Going straight to him, she stood over him as her sharp eyes surveyed his face closely. “Has Lilian been taking care of you?”
“Mother, I’m quite capable of surviving a cold, but yes, Lillian has been taking care of me.”
She turned to me. “Hello, Lillian. Thank you for taking care of Maximus.”
I fought a giggle at her unrelenting use of his full first name. “It was a pleasure. Can I pour you a cup of coffee?”
“That would be nice, thank you,” she said, sitting opposite her son.
I carried our bowls to the kitchen and rinsed them as the coffee brewed. It was awkward with Max’s mother in the house, and it was tempting to just leave, but I wasn’t going to go running off. I’d assured Max that I would stay and I would.
Max went back to bed and his mother joined me outside where I had decided to sun myself on the steps of the conservatory.
“Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs. Frost?” I asked, tensing.
“Marilyn,” she said.
Wow, that was a turn-up for the books. “Okay, Marilyn it is.”
She came to sit next to me and we sat quietly, watching the dogs as they raced around the grounds.
She cleared her throat. “I think I judged you too harshly and I haven’t been very fair to you so I apologize. I’m protective when it comes to my son.”
I felt myself thawing. “That’s understandable.”
“Obviously, Maximus cares a lot about you. Maybe you’re what he needs in a woman. I just wanted to say, that I won’t interfere in your relationship anymore, and if he decides to marry you, I’ll welcome you into my family. You’ll be the daughter I never had.”
It was what I had longed to hear and yet, she was wrong again. Her son didn’t want to marry me. “It’s not serious between me and Max.”
“You don’t need to tell me that because you think that’s what I want to hear.”
“It’s the truth. Max is very committed to his business, and I don’t know if he’ll ever marry me or anyone else.”
She took a deep breath, her eyes set far on the horizon. “That’s probably partly my fault. I haven’t been the best mother, and that’s a difficult admission to make. When I became pregnant, I was really hoping for a girl. Actually, I felt it in my bones. It was a girl. I was so sure. I even bought lovely pink baby grows. Then Maximus came along and… I… I just didn’t know what to do with him.”
I listened, fascinated and horrified in equal measures.
“I’m ashamed to say I was disappointed, and I was disappointed for a very long time. I couldn’t give him the love he deserved.”
“Why didn’t you try again for a girl?” That was what most people did but then again, most people didn’t feel so strongly about gender to the point of distancing themselves from a child they had borne.
She looked at me with a stricken expression. “What if I got another boy? I couldn’t take that risk.” She let out a long sigh. “I traumatized Maximum when he was a child and now I’m afraid it’s too late to get close to him.”
My heart went out to her. She really did love Max; she just didn’t know how to relate to him. “Maybe you should start by calling him Max.”